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Fencer Intel
high 8.8

CVE-2018-8905 json

In LibTIFF 4.0.9, a heap-based buffer overflow occurs in the function LZWDecodeCompat in tif_lzw.c via a crafted TIFF file, as demonstrated…

published 2018-03-22 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-20513

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.1%
EPSS 3.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In LibTIFF 4.0.9, a heap-based buffer overflow occurs in the function LZWDecodeCompat in tif_lzw.c via a crafted TIFF file, as demonstrated by tiff2ps.

Patch / fix

  • tiff Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.0.9-6

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-8905

  • tiff Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.0.3-7ubuntu0.10
  • tiff Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.0.6-1ubuntu0.5
  • tiff Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.0.9-5ubuntu0.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-8905

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • libtiff RHEL 7 4.0.3-32.el7
  • libtiff-tools RHEL 7 4.0.3-32.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2053

  • tiff SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 4.0.9-5.9.1
  • tiff SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 3.8.2-141.169.9.1
  • tiff SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP3 +1 more 4.0.9-44.15.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:1889-1SUSE-SU-2018:1835-1SUSE-SU-2018:1826-1

  • tiff openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.3.0-1.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11461-1

  • tiff Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +14 more 4.0.9-r5
  • tiff Alpine 3.7, Alpine 3.6, Alpine 3.5 +1 more 4.0.9-r4

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2018-8905

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • lib32-libtiff Arch Linux 4.0.10-1
  • libtiff Arch Linux 4.0.9-2

arch linux advisories AVG-791AVG-813

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-8905 updated cvss 4.0

libtiff: heap-based buffer overflow in tif_lzw.c:LZWDecodeCompat() allows for denial of service

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libtiff
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libtiff 4.0.3-32.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) libtiff-tools 4.0.3-32.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libtiff 4.0.3-32.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) libtiff-tools 4.0.3-32.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libtiff 4.0.3-32.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) libtiff-tools 4.0.3-32.el7
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libtiff 4.0.3-32.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) libtiff-tools 4.0.3-32.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2053
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 libtiff Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 libtiff, libtiff-tools
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

3.08% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.maptools.org http://bugzilla.maptools.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2780 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/halfbitteam/POCs/tree/master/libtiff-4.08_tiff2ps_heap_overflow referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.